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Scarface (1983) was an award-winning film that had a huge cultural impact, was one of Al Pacino's most iconic roles, launched the careers of several of it's stars, and is considered one of the greatest gangster films of all time.
And yet, despite having ZERO African-American roles, it was revered by the African-American hip-hop community, with multiple rap stars paying tribute to it, and some even taking on names from the film.
Why the hip-hop community still worships 'Scarface' - The Grio
Scarface is loved by rappers with an unwavering devotion that can safely be called obsession. It’s so beloved that there is even a documentary about its impact on hip hop. In “Scarface: Origins of a Hip-Hop Classic,” several rappers like Diddy, Snoop Dogg, and Method Man talk about the great influence the movie had on their life.
Why the movie 'Scarface' became a hip-hop icon - The Philidelphia Inquirer
"Every man that walked out of that theater had just that look on his face like when they were a baby and looked at their mother's eyes. We were walking out like we were zombies," said Schoolly D, who has referenced the movie in his work and mimicked the famous black-and-white "Scarface" poster of Al Pacino for his 1996 compilation record, "Gangster's Story."
"We had to go back three or four times."
How is this possible, when Black characters are completely absent from a film about Cuban refugees?
The same reason why audiences loved WALL-E, despite not being robots; representation is a myth.
It's not the color of an actor's skin that decides wether you identify with them, are able to insert yourself into the film, or enjoy the story. It's the characters and their journey that does that. That's the writing, direction, and acting.
Black audiences were engrossed by Scarface for the same reason white audiences enjoyed watching Family Matters and The Cosby Show for decades. Predator 2 was a cult classic to sci fi fans not because of the lead star's skin color, but because he was not-yet-but-almost-too-old-for-this-shit.
Here is a 30-second cam video of Avengers: Endgame, filmed during a premiere screening for a Tamil audience in Sri Lanka. Watch what happens when Thor appears:
https://i.imgur.com/CpzMZa6.mp4 (0:30s)
Do you think the Tamil audience reacted that way because Thor brought representation on behalf of Tamil skin color and culture?
Shallow, unempathetic people (Read: Leftists) can only appreciate characters that look and act like them. Or at least, as they perceive themselves. Because of how shallow and unempathetic they are, they come to the conclusion that EVERYONE must want to see themselves "represented" in media the same way. They don't recognize that our ability to emphasize with people who are different than us, due to a universal shared human experience we can ALL identify with is more important than skin deep identifiers.
I think most of them really only feel this way because they were told to. It's more of an affectation than really not feeling connected to characters of different races.
The entire representation argument is based on the Two Doll Experiment from the 40s. Which literally came down to "black kids prefer white dolls and think they looker nicer." They extrapolated from this that because black kids mostly see white people, they begin to develop self esteem issues and complexes that lead to hating being black.
Like most "land mark experiments" from the 40s-70s its basically the most underwhelming thing possible that barely shows anything but what the "researchers" wanted it to say as they blow up minor findings into huge cultural opinions.
This one however is even more important, because it was the evidence that won Brown vs Board of Education. Thereby its responsible for basically the success of the Civil Rights Movement and every consequence that has come from it.
Also DBZ being basically a cornerstone of every Black or Latino boy's mind disproves any representation argument anyway.
What, you mean blacks see themselves as violent destructive apes who's rulers send them to destroy other civilizations? Yeah, I could see them liking that.
If they like Vegeta yeah.
But anyone who likes Vegeta has always been clowned on for being a jobber.
So is the argument that black females are incapable of empathizing with other races, but black males value positive masculine traits and are less concerned with race?
Only half joking, I could see that actually being the case.
I'll go a step further.
Everything wrong with black people as a whole is the fault of black women and their limitless narcissism. And black dudes, when removed from their toxic influence, can be much more upstanding and positive people.
Still doesn't change genes.
Your genetic lineage is chosen by who your mom chooses to sleep with and then which ones she keeps.
Guess who black women love to sleep with? Why its the most violent, low IQ thugs imaginable. Creating an entire genepool with that rattling around in their head somewhere.
Same with mafia stuff. Rappers love that. Honestly the need to be represented makes you look pathetic
Tony Montana is a really fun movie character but if you come out of Scarface thinking he's inspirational you've managed to watch the movie completely wrong.
Yeah, even from a criminal-perspective, you could argue the first half of Tony's story (surviving the motel ambush, rise to the top, ambition, balls, etc) is inspirational in a way.
But the way he handled being at the top (flashing his wealth, not following his old boss's advice about saying under the radar, etc) is probably what all the black rappers/gangsters want to emulate.
You could make an argument that a rags to riches story is inspirational but it's really hard to miss that Tony Montana is a human pitbull who ends up killing basically everybody that's important to him in insane drug-fueled freakouts.
Plus Tony Montana killed a commie in the beginning.
"You don't have to mention that. That was fun"
Honestly, there is only one type of person that truly needs a character to physically look like them to feel 'represented'. And, that is basically very young children. As in, below the age of 6. As in: people who only recently developed Theory Of Mind.
This is because the children themselves are still developing a concept of self in the first place, and most of that development is coming directly from the parents.
You'll sometimes hear stories from children of different races, nationalities, or ethnicities remembering the first time they actually realized they were different from their parents. So for example, a black man who was adopted by white parents and living in a white community might remember the first time he discovered he was black, and that 'black' was even a thing. This is a bit of a small identity crisis early on, but normally it doesn't pathologize in any sort of healthy environment. You might typically get a situation where the child might need to see a health representation of their physical and behavioral appearance so they can identify with those representations, and recognize that their difference from their parents and community does not make them inferior.
But that's where it stops.
There is ZERO reason why a 12 year old, or a 40 year old needs physical similarity. If they claim it, one of two things is happening: they are so developmentally stunted that they have a sense of self that is as fragile as a 4 year old's; or they are a narcissist looking to be enabled.
This doesn't meant that when they grow into adults, they won't feel pulled between different cultures (that may happen), but those are psychological dilemmas that are easy to tolerate or overcome by people who have any proper adult psychology. The problem with the political left is the amount of psychologically broken people they create.
It's a leftist ploy to remove White representation in cultural icons, nothing more or less. It's not that Whites NEED White protagonists to self-insert into, it's the fact that White people are positively shown at all (lawful or anti-hero).
What do you mean? It's a movie about a criminal, blacks are perfectly represented